MicroCell - Requires Daily Reboot To Function

Ok, a few basics. If all of the lights are a solid green, as indicated in your pic, then the MicroCell itself has a connection to the AT&T Mobility servers. That's good. I assume that when your phones (all iPhones?) lose connection, the lights on the MicroCell are still a solid green and none of them are blinking. Next time you lose connectivity, check the lights to be sure (especially the 3G light).

Are you still using the original ac adapter, even with the replacement unit(s). If you are, I would check the ac adpater. It should read 16VDC with no load. If it doesn't, then the adapter could be going bad and we have seen all kinds of squirrelly things happen with failing adapters. If you replace it, then replace with one of the exact same power ratings.

I would check the detected signal strength of your iPhone. There are instruction on how to do that in the Tech Guide (see link in my sig).

Have you turned off entirely the iPhone? That sometimes corrects connection issues by re-establishing the MicroCell as part of the iPhone's cellular "neighborhood". You can also try to Reset Network Settings on the iPhone but I'd save that for last because you will lose pw's and some settings so unless you've got them written down or remember exactly how you had your phone setup it can be a real pain re-installing that info.

There is also the disable/enable LTE and/or Airplane Mode that has worked for some. It's not a fix but it does seem to help with maintaing a connection when at home. Check to see if Hand off is enabled on your myAT&T page as well.

While I doubt it's your gateway because you do seem to maintain a connection to AT&T, as inidicated by the light pattern, some gateways, routers and/or modems don't play nicely with the MicroCell. Especially if your provider has recently done some upgrades or firmware pushes that you may or may not be aware of. Verizon is notorious for hobbling another providers service from using their networks but that doesn't appear to be the case. The reason you were asked to check router settings etc is that the MicroCell absolutely needs to have certain router functions enabled/disabled as well as certain ports open to maintain the 24x7 secure VPN to AT&T. The MicroCell should be plug and play, and most often it is, but a lot of us port forward the necessary ports to a statically assigned IP address for the MicroCell to maintain stability.

For what it's worth, I have an iPhone 5 running 8.4.1 and I ususally maintain 5 "dots" M-Cell. I did notice that your phone has two dots of connectivity. That's not a lot but it is some connection. Each time you power cycle the MicroCell it looks for the closest tower's signal strength and adjusts the output of the MicroCell so that it is stronger so that the phone will hand-over connectoin from the tower to the stronger MicroCell 3G signal.

What is bothering me about this is the signal strength the OP shows with the Mcell right next to the iPhone.  When I set my iPhone 6 next to the Mcell, I get 5 "dots" of signal strength.  When I activate the "Field Test" mode on my iPhone (as described in the Tech Guide) in the same location, it shows -64 dBm.

For the OP to show only two "dots" of signal strength right next to the Mcell would indicate that the Mcell has reduced it's signal strength because of a competing cell tower nearby.

I'm curious.  If the OP unplugs the Mcell and the iPhone is in the same location, what signal strength does the iPhone show when there is no connection to the Mcell?

Please use the Field Test method to report the signal strength with and without the Mcell plugged in and the iPhone in the location next to the Mcell. 

I agree. Something appears to be attenuating the radio on the MicroCell. For me, I get full bars in my house no matter when the iPhone is in relationship to the MicroCell and only a moderate increase in detected signal strength the closer I get to the MicroCell. The radio signal from the MicroCell is "fixed" in that it is based on the detected tower signal at time of Initial Activation so the output should change very little. How that relates to the "closeness" of the phone to the MicroCell is something I'm still working on. We had another poster with a similar issue but his signal strength, at least as detected by the Android OS seemed to have a lot of fluctuation, which it shouldn't. Either the radio on the MicroCell was failing, his Android app was wonky, or something external was attentuating the signal.

Otto,

Thank you for the information. Let me address your questions & suggestions as you posted them.

1) Yes, all our phone are iPhone, and as shown in the image all the lights are solid, not blinking at all.

2) I am using the original adapter that came with this MCell, which is the third MCell I have used as it was replaced twice by AT&T. Each time, I used the new adapter that came with the new MCell, so I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the power adapter.

3) I ran the signal strength test mode as described in the Tech Guide, I am attaching the image below which shows -113

4) I have had three different iPhones with the same problem since purchasing the MCell, my spouse has gone through two different iPhones. Yes we have turned the phones off completely in the past, and I have tried the reset network settings option in the past as well. None of that makes any difference in this problem.

5) Automatic Hand-Out is ENABLED on my MCell. It shouldn't effect our connection because without the MCell our signal strength is two bars near a window, one or no bars at all if you are in the middle of our house. When the MCell is active and connected to the phones all have a full five bars of signal strength throughout the house, way more than the local tower can ever supply. So while the MCell is working, it should never hand-off unless we walk outside away from the MCell.

If manual port forwarding helps keep the MCell active, what should the settings be? I  was looking at the guide, and while it gives some information...not quite sure how verify access is clear on those ports to my MCell. I am considering putting the MCell on the DMZ, but not sure if that is a wise decision.

-Ben

Avedis53,

I think you missed the point that the iPhone is not connected to the MCell...hence the two bars of signal strength. When connected to the MCell, I get a full 5 bars. See at the top of the image next to the dots is says AT&T, not M-Cell.

I just reset the M-Cell and after a couple of minutes all the phone reconnected. I re-ran the signal strength test now that I am reconnected to teh M-Cell. Below is the result:

-113dB is basically no signal strength at all. It should read somewhere between -68 and -80 (my usual strength is -71dB). Forgetting the negative sign, the smaller the number the stronger the signal.

You need to move your MicroCell around your house to find the sweet spot. If you see the same issue with multiple replacements, and you have verified that the adapter is reading what it should (don't assume the adapter is good) then something is attenuating the signal as detected by the iPhone. It seems very unlikely that all of your replacement MicroCells would have bad radios, even the refurbed units that you are getting (the newest MicroCell is the black DPH-154).

As I answer this I see you reset the MicroCell and are now receiving about the strongest signal you can. The usual range for GSM is about -40dB to about -130dB. Again resetting the MicroCell forces it to reacquire the tower signal and adjust it's output accordingly. Let's see if your signal gets attenuated again. Did you reset by just performing a power cycle or did you actually do a hard reset (instructions in the Tech Guide)?

The router requirments are given in the setup instructions and are detailed in the Tech Guide. I doubt if that is the problem but it doesn't hurt to port forward to a static IP address. As far as checking for the ports to be open, there are port checkers online but they can be misleading. Verizon can certainly check for you but they will not give you any help at all with the MicroCell and just blame any connection issues on AT&T.

When running the Field Test, I also show the M-Cell indicator next to the dBm value shown.  I missed that earlier.

So you have virtually no cell tower signal without the Mcell and when it is connected to your phones, you get a pretty decent signal strength.

Because you have a number of phones that demonstrate the same problem and you've gone through a few Mcells and that has not resolved the problem either, I would be looking at router settings to see if they are set correctly.  I'm assuming you have been using the same router throughout this whole exercise in futility?  Please post the model number of your ActionTech gateway.

How is your home network wired together?  Please provide a simple explanation of how your components are wired together.

We don't normally offer advice on router settings because it is impossible for the two of us to stay current on the vast number of networking devices.  The Tech Guide lists the required settings for a router.  You can try assigning a static IP address and port-forwarding the necessary ports but make sure the other recommended settings like IPSec Passthrough is enabled and Block Fragmented Packets is disabled.  Your ISP can help you do this.

Avedis53s suggestion is a good one. It doesn't hurt to check the router settings to make sure that all of the minimum router requirements are being met. If everything check out and you still lose connectivity (even though the lights on the MicroCell remain a solid green) then I would change the physical location of the MicroCell to see if that improves connectivity. And yes, please explain your setup in a little more detail.

This is another example of why I don't recommend gateways.  Combining the modem and the router into one device makes troubleshooting difficult.  Normally, we would recommend that you bypass the router and plug the Mcell directly into the modem to see if your problem goes away.

If connecting the Mcell to the modem results in a stable Mcell connection, then you know that the router is causing the disruption and can focus on its settings, port-forwarding, etc., as the source of the problem.

The fact that your Mcell worked for a year and then started to act up makes me think that your ISP has changed something on their end, up to and including your router settings.

I still need your gateway model number for information purposes and your network wiring diagram.

I wouldn't hesitate to contact your ISP and request a new gateway (besides Actiontec) or as another option, ask for a modem only and get your own router.  At any rate, renting modems or gateways from an ISP is a waste of money.  You'd be better off in the long run to buy your own modem and router regardless.